Spike puller



. A ril 20 1926.

-M. 'E. LEE

"SPIKE FULLER- Fi led May 20, 1925 MARGARET E. Ls:

urronmz s.

Patented Apr. 20, 1926.

UNITED STATES MARGARET E. LEE, or SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA.

SPIKE FULLER.

Application filed May 20, 1925. Serial No.'31-,'518.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MARGARET E. LEE, a citizen of the United States, residing at San Francisco, in the county of San Francisco and State of California, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Spike Pullers, of which the following is a specification.

My invention is a spike-puller particular ly adapted for railroad work, for pulling spikes from ties. The purpose of my invention is to provide in a spike-puller a pair of pivoted jaws which can swivel up and down on their pintlc and have a connecting element causing them 'to swivel in unison, with an arrangement by which the a'ws may move slightly sideways towards and from each other in order to grip the spikes.

The handle'of the spike-puller, the socket at the bottom in "which the jaws are inserted, and the jawsathemselvesl are so situated that when. the aws are placed on a tie or the like, they are spread outwardly to engage under the head-0f the spike. When a leverage is put on the handle, the aws are squeezed laterally together and swivel slightly on their pintle so that the base of the socket contacts with the tie and the spike is raised.

In order to get a lower grip on the spike, the handle is swung upwardly, letting the weight of the spile puller rest on the jaws, which will move the jaws slightly apart. The shank of the spike can then be gripped and by levering down on the handle, the jaws will be forced laterally towards each'other, thereby tightly gripping the shank by biting into it and levering the spike upwardly.

I mount a spring in a recess in a socket of the jaws above the pintle, so as to normally force the jaws' downwardly, thereby closing them togetherg-but when the weight of the implement is placed on the jaws and thehandle elevated, the spring is compressed and the jaws spread apart.

The device to cause the jaws to act in unison 1s by having a semi-spherical socket in the upper and inner face of each j aw, so

as to form a spherical cavity in which a ball is inserted in the assembly of the spikepuller.

My spike-puller is an improvement over that shown in my patent application, Serial Number673,930, filed- Nov. 10, 1923. My invention will be more readily understood ings in which:-

Figure 1 is a longitudinal section of my spike-puller, showing one jaw in elevation, viewing its inner face.

Figure 2 is a bottom view of the jaws separated from the handle and socketf Figure 3 isv a vertical section of Figure-1 on theline 3 3.

Figure 4 is a front View .of the socket in the, base of the handle in the direction of the arrow tin Figure 1, with the jaws removed. 7 I

Figure 5 is a diagram of the spike puller engaging a spike-head, and: I

Figure 6 is a similar view with the jaws engaging the shank of the spike.

Referring to the drawings, the handle- 1 has'a base portion 2 with the socket 3 in which is mounted a pair of claws or spikepulling jaws t. These aremade in lefts and rights as indicated by numerals 5 and 6. The jaws are mounted on the pintle 7, showing Figure 3 as a bolt extending from opposite sides 8 of the base of the handle.

Each jaw'has a semi s'pherical socket 9, inwhich is inserteda ball 10to forceboth. of

the jaws to operate in unison and allow slight lateral play. The helical coil spring 11 is shown mounted in a recess 12' in the base of the handle and bearing against the flat back 13 of the jaws. The spring, in accordance with its position relative tothepintle 7, tends to force the points of the jaws downwardly, which as will be hereafter seen, forces their gripping edge together.

The jaws are constructed with a relatively sharp, gripping edge 14, have a curved base 15, the inner faces of the jaws being sub stantially flat as indicated at 16. The lower back corner 17 of the p'air'of jaws is .sub-' stantially a straight lineand the upper back corner 18 .is also a substantially straight edge, considerably wider at the bottom edge, forming a taper as'indieated at 19;

It will be noted with reference to Figure 2 that the outside bottom edge 20 ofeach jaw fits in the socket at the base of the handle and is slightly curved, with the part substantially underneath the pintle'7 being the narrowestdistance across. The outside top edge 21- is susbta ntially parallel when the jaws are pressed together. The jaws are flared outwardly at 22to give them increased strength The jaws are of a staunc'h,-;-rugged construction, having an upper edge 23 exfrom the following description and 'd ra wtending from the upper back corner 18 to the top of the toe 24 of the jaws, and each j aw has an outside side wall 25 of substantial thickness.

The socket 3 in the base of the handle 2 conforms substantially to the shape of the jaws when they are in the open or the spread position, as shown in Figure 2. The front side edges 26 of the socket are substantially straight and form a straight taper wider at the top than at the bottom. The back side corners 27, are of substantially the same distance apart at the top as the front edges 26, but they are slightly wider apart at the bottom than the edges 26, as shown in Figure 1. This is to accommodate the base 15 which is slightly narrower at the base in advance of the pintle than at the back.

l/Vhen the spike-puller is resting on the ground, as shown in Figure 1, the curved base 15 of the jaws rests on the ground and the lower curved base 28 of the socket is slightly above the ground, as is clear from the dotted lines. In this position with the toe of the jaws thrust upward to the limit, the jaws are spread widest apart, as shown in Figure 2. The movement of the jaws is limited by the corners 17 and 18 engaging the flat surface 29 of the back of the jaw sockets. In this position it will be seen there is a slight space 29 between the inside faces of the jaws at the front, and that they closely contact at the back 30. The jaws are readily inserted under the head of the spike when in this position, and as the spike is usually close down to the tie, the handle must be canted more into a vertical position. The jaws thus being spread apart, readily engage underneath the head of the spike as shown in Figure 5, or may grip the shank. When leverage downwardly is placed on the handle 1, the puller rocks on the curved base 28, transferring the weight from the jaws to the base of the handle. With this leverage the spike may be pulled a certain amount. In this downward levering action of the handle the jaws are forced together, due to the tapered shape of the socket in the handle, and bite into the spike. This enables a good hold to be obtained on the shank of the spike as indicated in Figure 6.

It is manifest, as the jaws must spread slightly sideways with the back inner edge 30 as the point from which they spread, that the pintle holes 31 are not quite true cylinders although it is preferable to have the pintle 7 cylindrical. The slight offset is indicated at 32 in Figure 1.

Inorder to have the jaws function as desired and as above mentioned, it is necessary that the socket portion of the handle be made to properly conform to the jaws and allow them to spread sideways with the proper wedge shape to cause the jaws to bite into the work. A downward leverage is used on the handle 1. It will be readily seen that the ball 10 in the semi-spherical sockets 9, forces both jaws to swing in unison and allows them to spread slightly laterally with out the ball becoming displaced. Should the ball or sockets become worn, a. larger ball may be substituted without detriment.

My spike-puller may be considerably modified in detail without departing from the spirit thereof. For instance, the shape of the jaws and the particular shape of the sockets and the handle, and the relative arrangement of the handle may be considerably altered to suit special work or requirements.

Having described my invention what I claim is 1. A spike puller comprising two jaws adapted to cooperate in gripping a spike and resembling in side view the front end of a shoe, the jaws having recesses cut in opposite sides of the rear sections thereof so as to present sidewalls spreading upwardly from the bottom line and spreading forwardly and rearwardly from an intermediate point, a pintle extending through the jaws transversely at said point and an operating element engaging the pintle and the rear wall of the jaws for effecting rocking motion of the latter, the said element engaging the rear wall with a slight amount of play to effect spreading or closing action of the jaws preparatory to the rocking action.

2. A spike puller comprising two jaws adapted to cooperate in gripping a spike and resembling in side view the front end of a shoe, the jaws having recesses cut in opposite sides of the rear sections thereof so as to present sidewalls spreading upwardly from the bottom line and spreading forwardly and rearwardly from an intermediate point, a pintle extending through the jaws transversely at said point and a bar straddling the side walls with the end thereof so as to slant rearwardly and engaging with the pintle for effecting spreading and closing action of the jaws by slight rocking of the bar and engaging with the back for rocking the jaws with the bar when the latter is further depressed.

3. In a spike puller of the character described, two jaws adapted for cooperation in gripping a spike and resembling in profile the front end of a shoe, the jaws having recesses cut in opposite sides of the rear sections thereof so as to present sidewalls spreading upwardly from the bottom line and spreading forwardly and rearwardly from an intermediate point.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

MARGARET E. LEE. 

